The present invention relates to anchoring sports goals and the like to underlying indoor or outdoor surfaces, and more particularly, to a portable anchoring device, a sports goal assembly that includes an anchoring device, and a method for anchoring a sports goal.
Various structures, such as sport goal frames, benches, and the like require anchoring to an underlying ground surface for safety and other reasons. For example, the frames of soccer goals require anchoring to an underlying playing surface to prevent accidental tilting over of the goals which may cause injury to players or other persons located nearby. This is true for goals located on outdoor playing surfaces as well as goals located indoors.
Examples of anchoring sport goals are provided by U.S. Pat. No. 6,082,697 issued to Grunfield; U.S. Pat No. 6,808,463 B1 issued to Stockwell, III; U.S. Pat. No. 4,913,428 issued to Nauman; U.S. Pat. No. 5,820,497 issued to Pena; U.S. Pat. No. 5,661,933 issued to DeJonghe; U.S. Pat. No. 2,020,158 issued to Oakes et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,651,551 issued to Ferrara et al. In addition, see U.S. Pat. No. 6,308,468 issued to Caruso and co-pending U.S. patent application No. 11/319,948 filed on Dec. 28, 2005. Also see U.S. Pat. No. 5,432,877 issued to Riffle et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,367,503 issued to Lowrance for the use of sand bags as anchoring devices.
Although the above referenced anchor devices, sports goal assemblies, and methods of anchoring sports goals disclosed in the above referenced patents may be satisfactory for their intended purposes, there is a need for a portable anchoring device, goal assembly utilizing the portable anchoring device, and method of anchoring a sports goal that can be used on both indoor and outdoor playing surfaces. The anchoring device should be capable of being readily attached to and removed from various goals supported on various indoor and outdoor playing surfaces in a manner requiring a minimum of time, effort, skill and labor. In addition, the anchoring device should be portable and capable of ready transport and storage.